Abstract
Molecular dynamics simulations in explicit water were carried out for two stacks, each composed of six 10-strand antiparallel β-sheets for two peptides corresponding to the diverging turn of two homologous Abl-SH3 domains. The first system, referred to as 10×6×MK contained the DLSFMKGE sequence from the Drosophila, while the second one, referred to as 10×6×KK, contained the human DLSFKKGE sequence. It was found that the 10×6×MK β-sheet stack is stable, but the 10×6×KK β-sheet stack is not. The stability of the 10×6×MK β-sheet stack results from the hydrophobic interactions of the methionine and phenylalanine residues and the leucine residues of the neighboring sheets. The Met, Phe, and Leu hydrophobic units make a hydrophobic core for the stack of β-sheets. During the MD run, the Met, Phe, and Leu residues of the neighboring β-sheets acted as a conformational switch moving the β-sheets so that the Phe residue interacted with the Met residue from the neighboring β-sheet. Replacement of Met by Lys destroys the hydrophobic core, which is the stability factor of the β-sheet stack. For the 10×6×KK system, individual β-sheets were preserved during simulations, but the interactions between the β-sheets were lost. The calculations of a six β-sheet stack confirm the conclusion drawn from our earlier studies of single β-sheet systems that the β-sheets must form stacks to be stabilized. These results suggest that the two conserved basic residues at the diverging turn of SH3 domains could act as gatekeepers to avoid aggregation.
